All agree his sentence was too harsh, but he may still stay locked up forever

[mahatmakanejeeves]

All agree his sentence was too harsh, but he may still stay locked up forever

By Ann E. Marimow March 22
@marimow

The judge who sentenced Raymond Surratt Jr. to life in prison didn’t think he deserved that tough a penalty. His attorneys said it was based on bad math. Even the government lawyers who prosecuted him say the sentence was a mistake. ... Yet they all also agree Surratt might stay locked up forever.

How that came to be is at the heart of arguments to be heard Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit takes up Surratt’s case, which turns on how many times inmates can appeal a sentence, particularly if the law becomes more lenient after they are sent to prison.

“Raymond Surratt will die in prison because of a sentence that the government and the district court agree is undeserved and unjust,” a judge wrote last summer, siding with Surratt in a divided panel decision from the same court.
....

If Surratt were resentenced today, he would face a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison, likely making him eligible for immediate release. The North Carolina man is being held at a federal facility in western Virginia, near the border with Kentucky, after a 2005 cocaine conviction.

[tblue37]

1. He should petition Obama to commute his sentence. nt

[polly7]

2. This is awful.

"In his strongly worded dissent last summer, Judge Roger L. Gregory responded that the only punishment more severe than a life sentence would have been death."

For just a drug conviction?